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NOTE ON THE SECOND AORIST AND SECOND PERFECT

[*]554.a. The second aorist and the second perfect are usually formed only from primitive verbs (372). These tenses are formed by adding the personal endings (inclusive of the thematic or tense vowel) to the verb-stem without any consonant tense-suffix. Cp. ἔλιπο-ν with ἔλυ_-σ-α, ἐτράπ-ην with ἐτρέφ-θ-ην (τρέπωturn), γέ-γραφ-α with λέλυ-κ-α.

b. The second perfect and second aorist passive are historically older than the corresponding first perfect and first aorist.

c.τρέπωturn is the only verb that has three first aorists and three second aorists (596).

d. Very few verbs have both the second aorist active and the second aorist passive. In cases where both occur, one form is rare, as ἔτυπον (once in poetry), ἐτύπην (τύπτωstrike).

e. In the same voice both the first and the second aorist (or perfect) are rare, as ἔφθασα, ἔφθην (φθάνωanticipate). When both occur, the first aorist (or perfect) is often transitive, the second aorist (or perfect) is intransitive (819); as ἔστησαI erected, i.e. made stand, ἔστηνI stood. In other cases one aorist is used in prose, the other in poetry: ἔπεισα, poet. ἔπιθον (πείθωpersuade); or they occur in different dialects, as Attic ἐτάφην, Ionic ἐθάφθην (θάπτωbury); or one is much later than the other, as ἔλειψα, late for ἔλιπον.

American Book Company, 1920.

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